What Is Discipline?

What do you think of when you think of discipline?

Suffering, pain, restrictions, perfection?

It’s unfortunate that so many of us focus on the negative connotations of discipline. That we think that reaching our health and fitness goals is just one unbearable task after another.

In reality all the successes we have in life are due to the positive aspects of discipline.

Discipline is in reality nothing more than structured training.

That’s what education is.

A system of skills that build on each other. You have to learn to add before you can do algebra. You need to learn your colors before you can draw a rainbow. You crawl before you walk before you run.

I really enjoyed watching this years Olympic Games.

The athletes who reach that level didn’t just show up by accident.  They planned, prepared and practiced.

Part of that process was failure. It usually is.

Can you imagine if Usain Bolt decided that since he got beat at the Jamaican trials that he wouldn’t bother going to the Olympics? Instead of folding his tent and going home it pushed him to work harder.

His God given talent wasn’t enough. It rarely is.

The result of his renewed effort is that he earned, he achieved, he made history (and not just as a gold medal braggart :)).

Discipline is about perseverance, not perfection.

Discipline is about planning, not procrastinating.

Discipline is about practice, not just participating.

Have you ever had a bad habit?

How do you break it?

By practicing good habits.

And sometimes it takes many many efforts until you get it right.

Have you ever been frustrated because you are unable to perform an exercise in the gym correctly?

I have, and still am at times.

If you train with us you know that we are very particular about movement patterns, hip hinging for example.

It takes practice, and lot’s of it, to be able to progress from simple hip hinging to explosive movements using that same pattern.

Do you think anyone does it perfectly the first time?

I was practicing my 1-Leg RDL right along with you this morning, and I was thinking to myself how much work I still have to do.

But because I know when I have it right I will move better, be more efficient, and get more out of my training, I practice it.

Do you feel like throwing in the towel when you went on a brownie bender last night – again?

Me too.

But I know that the consequences of giving up are far worse than getting back on the horse and making the next great choice.

You are not perfect, stop pretending you are.

Accept it, but don’t use it as an excuse.

It’s all too easy to look at the guy next to you and think “He’s lucky, He’s a natural” when in reality he has practiced these movements for the past 5 years.

It’s tempting to look at the woman next to you and think “she must have great genetics” when you don’t know that 3 years ago she weighed 75 pounds more than she does now, and it took all of those years to break bad habits and build the good ones.

People don’t just wake up one day and win gold medals, or fit into size 2, and eat properly, and train optimally.

They planned, they practice, and most importantly they persevere.

Nobody is going to hand it to you.

The “luck fairy” isn’t paying you a visit.

You have to be committed to taking action…every day.

You gotta want it.

Badly enough to…

Make It Happen!

Coach Dean